Back from the Summit 1.

Earlier this week I was invited to attend the CEO Summit in London. This event, run by The Times was a collection of CEOs of businesses as well as their chairmen and others besides. There were some seriously big names there.

We listened to politicians and business leaders talk about a radical agenda for growth in the UK. Some of it was radical, some of it not quite so radical.

We then debated our own thoughts over lunch and came up with key points to put into a letter to George Osborne. This was published in The Times today and I suppose sent over to George at the same time.

Poor George was not able to attend the Summit himself. He had a Greek banking crisis to deal with and had to drop out at the last minute. He was hastily replaced my Ed Milliband who amazingly does not have a speech impediment when heard in person. (I think the BBC must edit it in post production just to make him sound like an idiot).

Prior to all this, on Monday evening a group of about 100 of us assembled at The Times offices for a keynote address from the Prime Minister followed by dinner. He is always impressive, speaking confidently without notes and able to take questions on anything. But David does have a tendency to say what his audience want to hear. He also has a habit of not answering the questions he is asked. This was the second time that I have asked the PM a question and it was the the second time that he did not give a clear answer.

My question was about recycling in the UK. Specifically about improving the quality of material collected. Some material we collect is sorted at the kerbside giving high quality, high value material which can be reprocessed and used within the UK. Other material we collect is mixed together and once sorted out is of such poor quality that is has to go overseas, generally to China or India. I reminded the PM that his coalition had committed to being the greenest government ever and that in the recently published Waste Review it had stated that waste made up 1/6 of our non fossil fuel exports but only 2% of the value. Surely by increasing quality we could keep valuable material in the UK, create jobs (50,000 according to FoE) and reduce emissions. The current lack of a high recycling target for England could lead to more exports and a drift towards incineration. Would the PM consider a target at least?

Well, he said he would look at a target, but this is a bit late as the Waste Review is only days old. He rambled about local authorities having a market for their materials, how the landfill tax was going up and how councils could use incentives - all to increase recycling. But material quality, the key issue, was not mentioned once. This was not lost on other members of the audience.

If I take one grain of comfort from this it was Mr Cameron telling us all that a food waste caddy is a great piece of kit, not a "slop bucket" as the Daily Mail calls them. I like food waste caddies having designed a range of them and then supplying many thousands, all of them helping to recycle an awful lot of food waste.  

So, being a persistent sort of a person, I will write to David Cameron and try again. Wonder if I'll get a reply? Watch this space.